Johnny Leroux is on his way to the barbershop and he tells me to follow him and then he throws his cane into his car and takes off.

I mean — takes off. Like some old Mercury-era spaceship. Just up and rockets.

I have trouble following him. I drive through the streets of Stittsville, wondering if this has ever happened to me before — having trouble following someone who threw a cane into his car.

On the way to the barbershop we pass the Johnny Leroux Community Arena. Then the Stittsville Legion, which many say should also have Johnny Leroux’ name in it somewhere.

Then the car makes a sharp turn into a gas station, pops over a speed bump and comes to a snowboarder-kind-of-stop beside a strip mall.

“Do you always drive like that?” I say, as I walk up to him.

“Like what?” And then Johnny Leroux struts into the Heads Up barbershop — eighty-four years of age and he wants just a little off the top today, boys.

“I’ve known Johnny for years,” says Frank Olszynko, owner of Heads Up. “He’s a wonderful man. He’s one of the reasons we came up with this idea.” Ah yes, the idea. The reason Johnny Leroux is racing through the streets of Stittsville to get his hair cut even though he has admitted to me — privately, almost whispering the information, a little guilty about it — that he could “probably go a few more weeks” before he really needed a trim.

But he wants to help Frank. And Frank wants to help veterans.

Indeed, Frank Olszynko has a wonderful idea to help veterans, so Johnny Leroux is rushing through Stittsville to get a free haircut.

Yes, a FREE haircut. The same FREE haircut any veteran can get from now until Remembrance Day at either of the two Heads Up barbershops in Ottawa. (The second Heads up is in Barrhaven.) “I wanted to give something back to the veterans,” says Olszynko. “This time of year should be pay-forward time for veterans, a time to give something back to them for everything they have given to us.

“So what do I do? I’m a barber, right? If I were a chef I’d be cooking them a meal. I really am that grateful for what veterans like Johnny have done for me and my family.”

More and more businesses are starting to “pay forward” around Remembrance Day. Restaurants will offer free meals to veterans. Dry cleaners will press a uniform, at no charge, in the days before November 11th.

Dragon’s Den investor Brett Wilson started a campaign in Calgary last year, asking retailers to refrain from putting up Christmas decorations until after Remembrance Day. Many Alberta stores not only heeded the call, they turned their windows and displays into a tribute to Canada’s veterans.

So a free military haircut — it is perfectly in keeping with the times.

And it is a free MILITARY haircut that Heads Up is offering. If you are currently serving in the Canadian Forces, for the next two weeks there will be no charge for your haircut either.

“We get a lot of military people in the shop,” says Olszynko. “I don’t know if they get any sort of subsidy to help pay for their haircuts, but I think they should. They need to have a certain haircut and that is an extra expense for them.” I ask Leroux if there is indeed a certain military haircut you need to have and he says there is.

“Short and ugly. The military has barbers specially trained for it.” As for his hair requirements today, Leroux says he has become more liberal as he has grown older. Almost mad-cap.

“I like to keep the sides long,” he says. “There’s not much hair growing on the top anymore, so if I keep the sides long people will at least know it was once possible.”

Leroux, served 18 months in Korea, by the way. He enlisted in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry when he was 17 — lying about his age — and was overseas the next year. He did six months longer than just about anyone else in Korea because “they forgot about me” and he was too worried about his age to ask anyone.

“I’d probably ask someone today,” he says.

Anyway, Heads Up barbershops will be offering free haircuts to veterans and Canadian Forces personnel from now until Remembrance Day. A good pay-forward idea.